President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with advisers to former liberal presidents on inter-Korean issues, at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. The 21 former officials, who played roles in the 2000 and 2007 inter-Korean summits, are advising the Moon administration on the third summit slated for April 27. / Yonhap

By Kim RahnInter-Korean relations cannot improve without an agreement between North Korea and the United States on the North's denuclearization, President Moon Jae-in said Thursday. In a lunch meeting with an advisory group composed of 21 members engaged in inter-Korean issues, Moon said although a reconciliatory mood has been created along with the upcoming summit with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un, the current situation is more serious and complicated than the circumstances of previous inter-Korean summits.The group of mostly former officials played roles in holding the first and second summits in 2000 and 2007, respectively. They were selected to give advice to the government for the Moon-Kim summit slated for April 27.Moon said that there have been many valuable inter-Korean agreements from the July 4 Joint Communique in 1972 to the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement in 1991, and two summits with their joint declarations. "These past experience and achievements have helped the two Koreas agree on the upcoming summit," he said. "However, the current situation is more serious than ever. Amid ruptured inter-Korean relations for the past 10 years, military tension has reached a peak and the North's nuclear weapons and missiles have been developed to a level that threatens the U.S."In this situation where the U.S. and North Korea have exchanged military threats, and international sanctions have been imposed on Pyongyang, he said it is difficult for the two Koreas to resolve inter-Korean issues by themselves."Inter-Korean issues cannot be addressed even though the two Koreas make agreements. They can be when Pyongyang and Washington reach an agreement on denuclearization and the agreement is put into practice," Moon said."So we must make the inter-Korean summit successful so that it can lead to the success of the U.S.-North Korea summit. But none of this is easy."He also said the government cannot push ahead with its policy on inter-Korean issues without public support, adding he will make efforts to communicate with the people. The comments may have come from the controversy before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics: Many people reacted negatively when the two Koreas decided to form a unified team for women's ice hockey, saying it would deprive some South Korean players of a chance to play. The government then admitted it failed to collect public opinion on the issue fully in advance.The group is led by Lim Dong-won, a former unification minister and National Intelligence Service director under the Kim Dae-jung administration. He played a key role in holding the first inter-Korean summit ― he met then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang about a month before the bilateral talks and arranged the details of the meeting.It also includes Rep. Park Jie-won of the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP), a former culture minister who contacted North Korean officials in China for the 2000 summit as Kim Dae-jung's special envoy.Also participating were Rep. Chung Dong-young of the PDP, a former unification minister under the Roh Moo-hyun administration responsible for the opening of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and other former unification ministers under the Kim and Roh governments ― Park Jae-kyu, Jeong Se-hyun, Lee Jong-seok and Lee Jae-joung.Others included Moon Chung-in, President Moon's special adviser on security and unification affairs; Baek Jong-chun, board chairman of the state-run Sejong Institute; Han Wan-sang, former deputy prime minister and current professor emeritus at Seoul National University; and Hong Seok-hyun, a former ambassador to the U.S. and now the head of the Korea Peace Foundation.